The Batman story continues, with Colin Farrell's The Penguin now ...
Ever since 1997's Batman & Robin was sentenced to movie jail for its crimes of high camp, the caped crusader has increasingly courted older superhero fans.
The Dark Knight was pitched as a Michael-Mann-esque thriller. Joker swapped out Scorsese's New York for Gotham. Following directly from Matt Reeves's 2022 reboot The Batman – itself a riff on David Fincher's serial killer procedural Seven – The Penguin takes the form of a gritty, HBO crime drama.
Colin Farrell returns as Oz Cobb (Oswald Cobblepot? Never heard of him), the sneering gangster who fronts the exclusive Iceberg Lounge in Gotham. Just don't call him "Penguin": across eight one-hour episodes, the show (created by Lauren LeFranc, with Reeves as an executive producer) tugs at the bruised ego and vicious temper behind the iconic Batman foe as he attempts to foist some respect on his name.
A quick recap is necessary. In the climax of The Batman, the Riddler offed the fearsome mob boss Carmine Falcone and orchestrated a mass flood to cleanse the crime-ridden metropolis of Gotham. The resulting shock wave sent the underworld's major players into disarray – a power vacuum that Cobb quickly cashes in on by improvising a gangland war.
Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) is the daughter of late mob boss Carmine Falcone. (Supplied: Binge)
Caught in the crossfire is Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti; Palm Springs), a fresh arrival from Arkham Asylum (brandishing the ominous nickname "The Hangman") who picks up the family trade. The crime heir lives up to her reputation, efficiently meting out her wrath with razor wire, handguns and a wide-eyed smile. Although – not unlike Arthur Fleck from 2019's Joker – she's configured more as a tragic figure pushed to the edge.
The Penguin gets to take a sidekick under his wing, amusingly beating the past three iterations of Batman to the punch. Rhenzy Feliz (Encanto) plays Victor Aguilar (the last name translates to "haunt of eagles"), a reluctant, small-time criminal subsisting within the ruins of Gotham after his life was swept away by the flood. Though meek and afflicted with a stutter, the young hustler proves useful as an accomplice to Oswald, who glimpses his own reflection in Aguilar's life of hardship.
What happens when a monster raises someone in his own image? The Penguin unfortunately seems incurious on this point. There's little tension in a character like Aguilar, whose reservations about the morally ruinous demands placed upon him are fleeting at best. For a show that pays lip service to class and power structures, it entirely neglects the perspective of a young person of colour; he never grows into his own villain.
As Cobb seizes on the production of a new illicit substance (an upper somehow derived from the spores of mushrooms), The Penguin burrows into the inner workings of the drug trade, complete with the requisite double-crosses, false flags, negotiations and executions.
Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni (l) and Colin Farrell as the titular character. (Supplied: Binge)
The series is compelling in this register, but suffers from the common prestige TV compulsion to reshuffle the status quo every couple of episodes. Plot lines and character arcs are continually introduced and discarded in an attempt to raise the stakes. But this ultimately starves any sense of momentum, particularly in the intriguing relationship between Sofia and Oz – it's revealed he was once her chauffeur. Similar to The Acolyte and House of the Dragon, the resulting season is only left with a handful of episodes by the time it settles on a direction.
Despite existing as a brand extension for Robert Pattinson's Batman, those intending to scour the show for Easter eggs and Bruce Wayne sightings will be disappointed. If there is a reason to watch the show, it's to admire Farrell's commitment to this sickeningly self-interested antihero. Enveloped within the impressive make-up work (courtesy of Michael Marino), he resembles a snarling mutt with gold fillings.
Cristin Milioti's Sofia Falcone is painted as a tragic figure pushed to the perimeter. (Supplied: Binge)
It's undeniably a gimmicky stunt, almost to the point of grotesque caricature, but Farrell succeeds in projecting a vulnerability through those extensive prosthetics that feels sincere. Frankly, there could be more of the Irish actor cracking wise with his elongated New York drawl, which underpinned some of The Batman's biggest laughs. Cobb is better utilised as a bit player, rather than the focus of a po-faced character study.
Batman's grungy 2022 reboot may have impressed as a politically conscious, M-rated tentpole release, but Reeves' vision of Gotham makes a tremulous foundation for an original HBO drama, with more than a passing allusion to TV heavyweights like The Sopranos.
No amount of blood, drugs or coarse language (true to modern superhero form, the show is strictly sexless) can distract from the thin ice underneath The Penguin's waddling feet.
The Penguin is streaming now on Binge.
